The CTR Core serves as the central Mid-Atlantic NORC resource to facilitate the conduct of clinical research in nutrition and physical activity, seminal areas of investigation necessary to promote changes in the obesogenic American environment that will reduce the prevalence and ultimately prevent obesity. The multidisciplinary skills of the CTR Core's leadership assist Mid-Atlantic NORC investigators with study design, utilization of the wide range of state-of-the-art obesity, nutritional, metabolic and CVD-related research tests and interventions, and the development of collaborations. We promote the bi-directional translation of research from clinical experiences to the identification of genes that influence susceptibility to obesity and associated comorbidities in the Molecular Genetics and Nutrigenomics Core (MGN Core), and then probe the molecular and cellular mechanisms of obesity, type 2 diabetes and associated diseases in the Adipocyte Biology and Basic Mechanisms Core (ABBM Core) (Figure 1). We then assist investigators in the phenotyping of subjects, cardiometobolic evaluations, and the development and implementation of evidence-based diet, exercise and pharmacological interventions that can be translated into clinical trials in the community, and disseminated as real worid outcomes into practice (Figure 2).